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Category: News
Media: Video
Turnaround time: More than a week but less than a month

Description of story

How do you tell a story that happened in Michigan 40 years ago? Thank God for archival footage!! I was able to mix it in with things I shot recently. In 1974, 30,000 cows were shot & killed in Michigan after the chemical PBB was put into their cattle feed accidentally causing deformations along with poisoned beef & milk that many people consumed.

Feedback requested

Overall impressions, feedback is appreciated :-)
Getting approval from BBC for footage of cows being shot & from another doc filmmaker for interview of farmer really helped this piece. Would of been much harder otherwise.

From the opening shot there was a sense of foreboding, kind of reminded me of the opening scenes of the Texas chainsaw massacre (the original) where they pass the slaughterhouse. This certainly sets the scene for the rest of the piece.

You seemed to hit the mark for b-roll. Every time someone mention pits, shooting cows, files and even flowers and sunshine you showed us. Great work considering a lot of that footage was dug up.

On that note, the b-roll of the three cows was great. I assume that was your footage. Did you hypnotize them to get them to stand in the right spot? I tend to find animals wait patiently for you to set up and then move just before you hit record.

Watching the old footage of the farmer also added to the sense of sadness. For a second, I thought that he might have committed suicide but only until his wife mentioned that he didn't. So I was glad you included that or I would have wondered.

I liked the way you kept the story tight. We don't need to know how the chemical was dumped in the food. I pieced together that nothing was done and that the farmers shot their own cattle in the end... I had a moment to wonder why the postman put $20 in the mail for them but when you introduced the fact that they were receiving letters I guessed that their plight was well known.'

This site use to have lots of videos that I and others would review but over the past 1 1/2 years it's just not as busy as it use to be which is sad because people use to get something out of watching the videos and reading the comments.

I'd always talk up the site at various workshops I'd teach and hope this site will pick up.

I'm self taught and work on my own. Watching videos and reading the comments has been a great recourse for me. You really don't the same sort of feedback from asking friends and family. I was craving someone to give me constructive comments. This is the only place I have found them.

I've been doing this since 2008 and still watch lots of documentaries, read a lot, etc.

There isn't much out there for feedback and I often send my pieces to various directors and producers of long form stories and doc that I really respect and get great feedback and good constructive criticism.